Main-Travelled Roads: Being Six Stories of the Mississippi Valley

By Hamlin Garland. Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1894. 251 pages. Original green cloth hardcover with striking gilt corn-stalk decoration to both boards and spine.

This is the 1894 Stone & Kimball printing of Garland's important collection of Midwestern regional stories. It is not the first edition: the work was first published by Arena in 1891. This handsome Stone & Kimball edition includes an introduction by W. D. Howells and decorations by H. T. Carpenter, including the frontispiece and in-text illustrations.

The six stories are: “A Branch Road,” “Up the Coulé,” “Among the Corn-Rows,” “The Return of a Private,” “Under the Lion's Paw,” and “Mrs. Ripley's Trip.” The final colophon is present, confirming printing by John Wilson & Son at the University Press in Cambridge for Stone & Kimball in 1894.

Condition: Very Good for age. The original green cloth remains unusually bright, with strong gilt decoration. The binding and hinges appear sound, and the photographed pages are clean and readable. There is mild darkening to the spine; light rubbing and small areas of fraying at the spine ends and board edges; minor corner wear; and a small stain/toning mark at an endpaper/inner-gutter area. No dust jacket is included.

Please review every photograph carefully for the precise condition, decorative cloth, gilt, page quality, and wear. You will receive the exact 1894 copy shown.